HAIRDRESSER AND MANICURIST. WAITRESS
Hairdressing and shampooing, manicuring and chiropody, are almost
exclusively the work of girls and women. There has been a decided
improvement in these employments, and any girl who takes a serious
interest in making herself a thoroughly trained worker in one of these
lines of work, provided she has the gifts which are needed, is likely to
find her occupation becoming more and more necessary and esteemed.
To be entirely successful in work of this kind a girl should have engaging
personal qualities. Just as a doctor or nurse with abundant personal
vitality gives health and encouragement to patients by being in the same
room with them, so the girl who gives massage after a shampoo quiets and
soothes the client with whom she is working and who has come in for a rest
as well as to have her hair shampooed. A girl with this power to soothe is
a helpful person. She will never lose a customer who can remain with her
if the customer has once experienced the difference between an ordinary
treatment and the superior work of the girl who is gifted by nature with
a personality which both soothes and invigorates.
While a girl may begin her training as young as sixteen, it is better if
she is nineteen or older. Some experienced women say that no girl should
begin work of this description younger than twenty. She should apply for
a position as a helper in a shampooing and manicuring establishment or
with a chiropodist. Sometimes the pupil is expected to pay a fee of
twenty-five dollars or more for three months' instruction. But in many
good establishments it is held that the work of a beginner is very soon
worth something. It is not necessary, therefore, for the girl to pay a fee
in order to become trained. She may find a place where she will be paid a
fair wage for a beginner within a short time after she has been accepted.
But if the beginner pays no fee for her instruction, the head of the
establishment will expect rightly that the assistant will remain in her
employ two or three years at least so that she may repay the time and care
which have been given to her training. In a year and a half a good
assistant should be earning from ten to twelve dollars a week, and in two
or three years her weekly wages are likely to be fourteen or sixteen
dollars. If she takes some responsibility in managing the work and
workrooms, she may earn as much as seventeen or eighteen dollars a week.
In some establishments tips are allowed. The girl should understand,
however, that as a rule wages are lower where tips are permitted. It is
better for her to be employed in the best kind of establishment where the
highest wages are paid. In such an establishment tips are unusual.
The helper is likely to begin by taking care of the rooms and toilet
articles, washing brushes, combs, etc., and carrying out miscellaneous
orders. The attractiveness of the rooms depends on the perfection of
these details.
After some years spent in a good establishment the young woman may
undertake appointment work. She should choose carefully the district in
which she means to work, so as not to interfere with any other shampooing
or manicuring business. She should not take away customers who belong to
the business where she was trained. She will need to have some money
saved in order to provide herself with the necessary articles which she
has to carry with her, as well as tonics and lotions. Her expenses will
also include a telephone, carfare, printed cards, and so on. She should
estimate her expenditures carefully to determine how much she is making
over all expenses by the week, the month, and finally by the year.
The summer months are likely to be slack, and this should be taken into
account. She should arrange her appointments so that she may make the best
use of her time and energy, and she must keep appointments punctually.
A successful business of this kind may realize a weekly return of from
twelve to eighteen dollars. Such a worker by the time she has saved some
capital to invest may be able to start an establishment of her own,
but she should do so only after a careful calculation of the expenditure
required.
* * * * *
The modern tea-room has changed to some extent the occupation of the
waitress. The modern lunch room in the same way makes a feature of the
class of girls who attend on customers. They are expected to be especially
quiet, deft and well mannered, and they should be dressed with that entire
suitability to their occupation which is a mark of the well-bred girl.
These girls have often been brought up with no special occupation in
view--possibly they had not expected to earn a living by paid employment.
But the opportunity comes to find work in a tea or lunch room, which is
owned or managed by a woman friend, and they gladly enter on their new
occupation, pleased as every normal girl should be to be busy and to earn
an income. It is possible for the girl who has duties at home to spend part
of her day as a waitress in a lunch and tea room. The same gifts and
knowledge which make her a success in her work at home cause her to be
prized as a waitress. She understands how a table should be set. Quickly
and deftly she lays the table after each customer has been served. Her
touch and movements are noiseless and pleasing to watch. She is interested
in what each customer wants. She is thoughtful and has a good memory, is
good tempered and not impatient. She has an instinct for placing and
arranging food so that the man or woman at the table feels that he or she
is being waited on by an intelligent, well-mannered person. In spite of the
high standard of the service required, the pay is rather small. It may not
even cover all the girl's expenses. She has the advantage, however, of
limited hours and leisure to carry on her duties at home.
The work of the regular waitress is in an hotel, restaurant, women's club,
or in the dining rooms connected with apartment houses and private hotels.
Women who work in such places should be neat and smart in appearance and
should wear dresses of a uniform standard, generally black with white
aprons, cuffs and collars. A good home training is of great assistance to
them in their work. They should have common sense and good judgment, and
be polite to customers and fellow workers. Perseverance, intelligence and
physical strength are required by waitresses. A girl who is naturally
erect, with a good carriage and graceful walk, is at an advantage in this
occupation. She needs to be kindly and thoughtful and to take pleasure in
serving her customers. She has to understand and remember her customers'
checks, and the amount of the checks she hands in ought to equal the
average cash sales of other waitresses. Many customers make a point of
coming to the same waitress every day, and she should remember where they
prefer to sit and how they like to be served.
One advantage in this work is that the worker is given two, sometimes
three meals, in addition to her payment in actual money. In a number of
establishments the tipping system prevails, which provides a girl with an
added source of income. The average Canadian girl, however, dislikes being
tipped, and there are many objections to the tipping system.